Month: July 2006

A woman has applied for the open position in our office. Have I mentioned farmers are rednecks? Yeah. They would never warm up to her. They aren’t going to buy anything she pushes. They aren’t going to listen to any advice she’ll have. No matter how good she is, it just. Won’t. Work.

Beside that, I don’t want to work with a woman.

Okay. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest I can sit back and wait for the fur to fly. Hit me with your best shot.

A few thoughts rattling through the empty spot in my brain at the moment:

When I post something at the top, and mention it is pinned to the top, and even attach another message saying there are new posts below said pinned post, are people actually reading the new posts? I’m just curious because I’ve gotten NO comments on the past few posts that are new… under the “lecture” post… Yes, I’m a blogwhore. I want feedback, damnit!!

Eldest son’s girlfriend had emergency gall bladder surgery yesterday afternoon. We wish her all the best for a speedy recovery. I can’t believe they do that kind of thing on an outpatient basis! She went home last night! Incredible.

Youngest son, Jon, is racing again tonight. Yes, with a motor. (smartass) He did most of the work on it yesterday while the mechanic who was too busy to work on it sat and talked to him the whole time. WTF? Keep your fingers crossed.

If you go to sleep at 7:30 in your recliner, then fall back asleep in bed after your wife wakes you up and tells you to go to bed, it makes perfect sense that you will be wide awake at 3 a.m. Making the next logical step… that wife will also be wide awake at 3 a.m. Thanks, honey.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there has been a lot of sick-crap going around lately? 3T , Livey and Michael, just to name few are really under the weather. Go give ’em a hug. (Virtual, darlings… we don’t want you to get what they have.) Just getting over some of this myself, I can empathize. Big.Time.

Darrell made it home safely! This is good news. Now he can figure out what he’s doing with the rest of his life summer. Nice to meet you, D… don’t be a stranger.

Mikey has a ‘puter again! Whoot! Go see the great interview he got with Ryan White’s mom. Glad to see ya back, Mikey!!

A couple of my favorite people are going through some stressful times… Jules has been having a bit of a family crisis. Kids are wonderful, but they can tear your heart out… Santa Cruz’ own Sizzle is still job-hunting and settling into Seattle. I’m not sure Seattle has figured out what’s blown into town yet… they will! Only good thoughts for you both.

As hot as we think it is here, Helen and Jade are really turning into crispy critters… hope it cools off soon for you, girlfriends… no fun at all. (Especially Helen! What’s with no air conditioning on that berg? I mean, good grief!!)

Jon raced last night. Came in second in his heat race. Qualified for the main feature. Went a few laps in the main feature and the motor blew up.

Can you say, “FUCK!”.

Yeah. That pretty well sums it up.

At least the car owner is now good and pissed. He’s spent the big bucks at this company getting motors for his other classes of cars and he is finally seeing what we’ve been talking about. Why does every other car go round and round, but not Jon? Hell, he’s fast and he’s good – and if they could get a motor to stay together long enough then he could tweak the rest of the options available to make it even faster! His talent is being wasted on blown motors!

Owner swears he’ll be racing the next special race. Tomorrow night. Let’s see if they can make a motor that will stay together.

Jon (youngest son) was on the local radio racing program last night. He sounded smart and funny and … well, like Jon! I’m so proud of my kids… all of ’em. They do these things and I can’t believe they’re mine. They are all so self-possessed and strong in their own ways. Nothing like me! (Excuse me while I wipe a tear. Okay, sickening, I know…)

Hubs was talked about extensively on radio program. Not only given credit to by Jon, but by the program interviewer who has known Hubs for years. (One of those things that happens when you grow up in the same house your whole life.) All of it was good. Wish I’d had a tape of it. Damn.

Light at the end of the tunnel where bookwork is concerned. One account up-to-date and actually reconciled! Whoot!

Jon has special races for the next few weeks. Not only will he be racing his usual programs on Friday and Saturday nights, but now there are extra ones interspersed on weeknights. Possibility of large quanities of money to be won. More opportunities to get the ‘bugs’ worked out of the modified car.

The Bad.

When you get “older” and you’ve had four children and you have extensive coughing spells… well… let’s just say kegels only go so far.

Not enough rain yet. More, please. (Still listening? Oh, and just for the record, you could turn the heat down a tad… thanks.)

Gas prices are still going up – and what the hell is with enthanol blends now being MORE expensive than regular? That’s just nuts. I guarentee you the farmer is not getting the increase.

Corn prices are going down. WTF? (FYI – I’m going to have to rant about this again soon.)

Still have two more accounts to get up-to-date where bookwork is concerned.

After bookwork is caught up I need to clean my office, do a bunch of filing, shredding, throwing, organizing, and general cleaning. Ugh. I’m tired already.

I am determined to get my “crap” room organized this year. That would be 2006, smartasses. I also need to start working on my Christmas cards if I want to go back to my ‘normal’ homemade ones. What’s the sense of having all this stuff if I don’t use it? I remember when I did I enjoyed it immensely. Gotta get off the butt and just DO it.

The Ugly.

Those special races? Extra races? I’ve only got one word to say about that. Mother-in-law. Poor Hubs. He’s going to be insane before it’s over.

It’s Monday. Where did the weekend go??? Yes, I know I haven’t posted since Wednesday. Wanted to give you all a chance to catch up. (I can say that – you don’t know differently, now, do you?) All in all a good weekend.

Friday was a race night and my mother-in-law was picking up Hubs to go to the race. She always comes at 5:30. Always. Except when she doesn’t. When doesn’t she? When I work until 5 o’clock and race home to see Hubs for a few minutes before he leaves. I get home at 5:10 and her car is there. WTF? So much for having a few minutes to visit with Hubs. (Get your mind out of the gutter. No “quickies” were involved.) Oh, yes, she says… thought I’d come early. Arrgghh.

Darrell and his son Cristian came back to town on Friday, although they didn’t make it to my house until Saturday evening they spend Friday night with Amanda’s family. The boys were tickeled to be able to play together again. On Saturday night we had a good visit and I was much more relaxed this time. This is the way to do it! The first meeting is nerve-wracking and you are all worried about if you’ll be the same to them as you come across in your blogging, and wondering if they are going to be what you have imagined them to be. By the second meeting you know what to expect. I guess in some of these large group blog-meets they last all weekend and there is alchohol involved. That probably helps. All I know is he is as warm and intelligent and funny in person as he was the first time – and Cristian is electric! Wish I had that kids’ energy… I now have a “voice” to put with a blog and can only hope he’ll make it back this way next month for the fair… (hint)

Also on Saturday I managed to get several errands run and my house cleaned before everyone came. That pretty well wiped out Saturday.

Insert racing update: Son Jon started 9th and came in 5th on Saturday. He’s not been having very good luck lately. A couple of weeks ago he blew up the motor in the modified car, and they put another motor in that wasn’t as powerful just to get by. He did okay with it, but it just wasn’t the motor for that car. This week they got the modified motor put back in and went racing Friday night…. and… blew up another motor. Hubs, son, and car owner are not happy campers. Hubs and son are particularily disgusted because the motors are being built by the same people and they would love to go somewhere else. I’m not sure why they keep going back except they have so much money invested already and keep trying to get them to do it right. I’m frustrated too – why is it everyone else on the track is still going and Jon had to blow up? No one can seem to tell us why… just want more money. Grrr… So, anyway, he took the motor to be fixed on Saturday morning, worked on it all day, and was ready to race by Saturday night (this kid can whip a motor apart in no time at all!). It didn’t blow up, but just didn’t have the power they wanted. More tweaking will be required, I’m sure.

Sunday I spent spinning my wheels. I was up early and for no particular reason got a wild hair to make a big breakfast – pancakes, eggs, bacon. Of course, the one morning that my Hubs sleeps in… a little cold for him (yes, I nuked it) but I enjoyed it. Then I started back on the ever-dreadful bookwork. Yes, I am making progress, thank you for asking. I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel. That will be good news for those of you who may have thought I’d quit WoW altogether. Nope. Just have to take care of priorities, you know. Hubs went to the shop and was going to bring back the mower and get that done before it got too hot. (It’s been in the 90’s the past few days with very high humidity – the heat index has been in the 100’s. Thank goodness we got the rain we did! We’ve gotten another 2″ since my original rain post, too, and things are growing like crazy. Can use more rain- maybe later this week I heard there is a chance- but we’ll take what we got.) He got tied up doing things and didn’t get back until almost noon. By then I was ready for a break and offered to mow.

Did I mention I’m jinxed? I must be, for I only got about a fourth of the lawn done when the mower stopped. Dead in it’s tracks. The motor was still running, the mower blades were still churning, the deck still went up and down (this is a tractor, in case anyone wondered), but it wouldn’t move! Now, this thing isn’t that old… so…. I think the dealer is getting a call today. It still should be on warrenty. Hopefully they’ll figure it out. End result? I mowed just enough to sweat like a pig and get filthy.

Showered, refreshed, and full – Hubs grilled burgers while I was mowing – I head back to the bookwork.

I originally posted this (a few days late) last year. It really does say it all in a way that I probably couldn’t top this year. Another year has passed and we’re still here… and I still love you, Honey… more than ever.

Soul Mate

A milestone went by and I forgot to mention it, or if I mentioned it I didn’t give it enough credit. Earlier this month Hubby and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. That’s the ‘official’ anniversary, although we actually consider a year earlier when we got together to be our ‘real’ anniversary.

It wasn’t a storybook romance. It was a strange sort of an affair. I was married, and although we (the ex and I) were sharing an apartment, two children, and a mountain of bills, we were not sharing the marital bed. We’d decided we couldn’t afford to live on our own, neither of us wanted to live with our parents, and we still considered ourselves friends, so we’d just share the space and all that was in it and lead our own lives.

The ex worked days. I worked nights. After work I would sometimes go out with single girlfriends. We would go to a college town a little ways from where we lived and hit the local bars. My girlfriends had already spent way more time in these places than I had and knew some people, so that made it easier. I found out about a year after I’d first started going to this local bar that my now-husband had seen me there with my friends and had asked around about me and found out that I was still married with two kids – so even though I didn’t know him, he knew somethings about me.

I’ve told the story of how we met before, and won’t go into all that again… but suffice it to say when I met him it was comfortable. Safe. He made me feel a way I’d never felt before – that it was all going to be okay. He’d wrap his arms around me and give me what I called a ‘bear hug’ and it would bring tears to my eyes it was so perfect. He was so strong, but could be so gentle with me. He listened to me – his deep brown eyes totally focused on me. He was shy, but was brave enough to try and bring me out of my shell. He was smart and funny and warm and all the good stuff… I wasn’t looking for another attachment. I’d told myself – and actually told him that I wasn’t going to get involved with anyone again. I’d had enough. Men were okay as friends, but marriage was out. Good thing he didn’t listen to me!

He made me feel so good about myself… something that was sorely lacking in my life. He didn’t just love me for my body or my looks or what I could do for him, he loved me for me. I’d already been through some pretty rough times and my trust was pretty thin. I was cynical, always looking for the downside – waiting for the other shoe to drop. I kept thinking he was too good to be true. I spent a lot of time with him, as much as I could. Finally we decided I would move to his town and see how it went. I was reluctant to take my children since I had no means of support yet in this place, so I spoke to my ex and we decided the kids would stay with him for a short time while I got a job and got settled. He didn’t know about the new man in my life, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by bringing it up. I just let him believe I was doing this myself.

I moved, and my ex ended up moving back home with his parents, with our children. I got a job, got settled, and tried to see my children. His parents wouldn’t let me. They hit me with a lawsuit – they were suing for full custody. I was crushed. They would answer the phone and wouldn’t even let me talk to my ex, guessing rightly that he still had feelings for me and wouldn’t put me through this – let alone our children. My guy stuck through it all. The rants and raves and crushing tears. He was there for me. Finally, after several months of back and forth, and finally at least some visitation, we went to court where my ex met me at the door and said he and his lawyer had come up with an idea. Joint custody. This was very, very new at the time and you had to talk the judge into it. You had to convince the judge that you got along well enough with your ex to have joint custody, so you weren’t pitting the kids against each other. We did that. I was to have the kids during the week, he was to see them on the weekends. We rejoiced.

My guy now not only had a wife, but two children under 5 – the confirmed bachelor was a family man. He jumped in with both feet. As much as he loved me, he loved my children and treated them like his own. He never treated them differently… if anything he was heartbroken when they had to go to “their dad’s” – because he felt like that was him. Through the years, and a couple more kids, and a lot more critters, we’ve been through heaven and hell. Several years ago all the bad things that I thought I’d successfully put behind me, hidden in boxes of my mind came tumbling down and out jumped the demons I’d tried to vanquish. They took me by surprise and my husband by bigger surprise. It was a few months of hell on earth – nervous breakdowns aren’t fun – but I’m so much better now. I give all the credit to him. He saved me.

He loves me. He really does. To some he may not be the best looking man – He’s no Brad Pitt or Ewin McGregor. He’s more Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford. Not perfect, but he’s so beautiful inside it makes up for any flaws. He’s funny. He’s smart. He’s sexy. (He doesn’t think so.) He has no confidence in himself. He’s beautiful to me. He makes terrific babies. He really is my soul mate. 25 years is only a blink… I hope we get a lifetime more. It’s been quite the ride. Happy Anniversary, Honey…

1.8″ overnight (at home).
2.3″ at work (south and west of home).
3.5″ at co-worker’s house in town (west of home).

Needless to say, Hubs had a smile in his voice this morning when he called me to give me the rain gauge total. Me? I told him it wasn’t enough. I was kidding, people…geez!There’s a chance of rain all day.

Just because our co-worker is gone does not mean you start trashing his judgment. When a customer comes in repeating what said co-work’s opinion was on a product, you do not start bad-mouthing said opinion when he’s not here to defend himself. I mean, just because he’s not here anymore doesn’t mean his judgement is no longer as good as it was when he was here. You wouldn’t have said those things while he was still working here… would you?

I stole this from Amy. I’m dedicating it to an almost-member of our family. You know who you are.

Ten Ways To Tell If You Have Estrogen Issues…
1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2. You’re adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.
3. The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.
4. Your husband (significant other) is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.
5. You’re using your cellular phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says: “How’s my driving-call 1- 800-“.
6. Everyone’s head looks like an invitation to batting practice.
7. Everyone seems to have just landed here from “outer space”.
8. Your home thermostat doesn’t seem to be cooling no matter what it’s set on.
9. You’re sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
10. The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday

Bookwork. Getting there. Not there yet. Damn. On the plus side, I did find a $600 error in our favor on one of our bills. Now, that makes the weekend feel not so lost. I think by the end of next weekend I’m going to be back to my abnormally organized self. I can dream, can’t I?

Lottery? Well, ya gotta play to win… and I just forgot to play. Duh.

A break in the action on Friday night to go see “Pirates of the Caribbean” with my two lovely daughters. This one and this one. I tell you… I’m not sure what I laughed harder at, the movie or the girls. Amanda is a kill. For such a little person she has the biggest laugh… and believe me, she was laughing. She’d not seen the first movie, so Jack Sparrow was a new experience and judging from the hoots and hollars coming from the seat next to me, he was a huge hit! She also has always been the one who gasps and screams and covers her eyes and ears at every bit of surprise. Since she was a little girl (being the eldest) we’ve always told the kids, “It’s only pretend” when things got scary on TV or movies. She’s now 30 years old and I leaned over to her in the theater the other night and whispered, “It’s only pretend!!”… She was hilarious. Then, I’d laugh because I’d hear Em on the othe side laughing at Amanda. I tell you, it was a toss-up between laughing at the movie and laughing at the girls. Thank goodness we were in the very back row of the theater!

Weekend was made for the race fans, too. Youngest son raced Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in three different towns. Did very well for racing the modified with a back-up engine from a stock car. I think he’s supposed to get the regular modified engine back this week, so watch out for him next weekend. He’s really loving this faster car…

I can’t forget to mention Hubs had the time of his life on Saturday night at the races. More than usual. Why? Because his mother had other plans! Whoot! He came home so lighthearted and happy and had such great time. I wish I could figure out a way to make her not go every single time. It’s driving him nuts…. no, not only him, but the other people around them, too… He just wants to have some fun and enjoy something with our son without his mother tagging along…!! It would be fine if she could fit in, but the term square peg in a round hole? That is her to a “T”. As I write this, I wonder sometimes if my kids feel that way about me… wishing I wouldn’t tag along. Oh, well… they read this. If they don’t want me to go I should hope they have enough sense to know they can tell me they don’t want me involved and to know it’s not going to crush me. Ya listening, kids? We’ve even considered selling the RV because it’s just not fun to go when she goes along… and she just invites herself without asking! Don’t know… it’s a no-win situation. She’s a sweet lady, but there are just times you don’t want to have her around…

Last, but not least, in the ‘what was I thinking‘ department, Darrell and his son may be stopping back through on his way heading home later this week. Perhaps I’ll remember to take pictures this time. Doh.

Those friends who WoW… now you know why I was MIA most of the weekend.